It is a picture of the 9 foot tall Christmas tree that Andrew gleefully bought. Since we have such tall ceilings he was determined to get a tall tree as in his own words, "We'll never get to do this again as we can't afford the houses in England that have tall ceilings." I must admit I couldn't fault his logic but the tree was a bit on the large side. Still whether it was love that won out, or submission, or just simply me being outmanoeuvred, whatever the case, we got the tree!
Getting it into the back of the Victor the Volvo to get it home was quite amusing and we even had one friendly American suggest we just put it in his truck and he'll take it home with him instead. I think that was the final kick Andrew needed as he suddenly managed to fit it in! Once it was home poor Macintosh got quite a shock as we dragged this giant tree through the house. The sight of me standing on a stool whilst Andrew scrabbled around underneath the swaying tree as he fixed it into the base caused Mac some worry too. Eventually it was secured though and the mammoth task of decorating began.
We already had some ideas of what we wanted to do. I like matching colour schemes and for everything to look thematic. Andrew is a perfectionist too, who likes the simple Nordic styles. As you can imagine the combination of the two us meant that this was no simple operation. It took a few days of prep to create what was needed and some frustration too on my part when surprisingly we didn't have enough ornaments for our now 9 foot tree! Thankfully Andrew and I like the tree to be more on the sparse side so that the greenery shows through, but still there's sparse in a stylish way and simply not enough! Our style this year is pretty similar to our usual one. Its Nordic, so there are lots of reds, whites and natural materials, with some greys thrown in as I love them so much!
This year Macintosh even has his own little bit of decoration with his stocking up! Yes we are those people!
Now this photo shows my favourite part of the decoration (minus the tree). These houses were made by Andrew, out of card and without any templates. He got the initial idea from pinterest but the houses like these you can buy are ridiculously over priced. So he simply looked at a photo we found on the internet of a house, or church and then created these! They had battery operated tea-lights in so that the light flickers out through the windows. I know I'm slightly biased but I think they are amazing!
That church is just my favourite. He even added a rose window in it for me. Its the little touches that I love.
So there we go, that's our Christmas decoration. We are now mostly ready for Christmas and as we count down through advent we'll be reading some devotions written by John Piper so that we can focus on the true meaning of Christmas, because although decorating is fun, that's really not the focus for us. I'm pretty excited though. It'l be different out here but that could be fun!
H
Absolutely awesome decorations guys, they look spot on
ReplyDeleteJust realised Andrew made the houses and church... Amazing stuff!!! They look like expensive boutique gifts! Clare loves them too.
ReplyDeleteThanks James! We loved decorating and Andrew's artistic talents do come in handy as we get boutique looking things at a fraction of the price!
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